4 who died in McKinney Fire positively identified

Officials have now positively identified the four people killed last month in the explosive McKinney Fire, the largest wildfire of this year, using DNA and dental analysis.

The four people — Kathleen Shoopman, 73, Charles Kays, 79, Judith Kays, 82, and John Cogan, 76 — were all residents of Klamath River, the Siskiyou County Sheriff ’s

Office announced Friday.

The four died around July 29, when the McKinney Fire exploded overnight because of extreme fire weather, officials said. Two were found in separate residences, and two were found in a car parked in a driveway near Highway 96.

Shoopman was a fire lookout for the U.S. Forest Service who died at her home near the Klamath River that she had lived in for 50 years. The Forest Service released her name last month, pending positive identification, at the request of her older sister.

Public records indicate that Charles Kays, a retired lawyer, was married to Judith Kays, and that the two had lived in the area for decades.

Records also show that the four victims all lived within about a mile of each other in the 200-person Klamath River community. Several homes in the area were destroyed in the fire’s early days, officials said.

The fire has flattened 185 structures in total, and damaged 11 more, according to Cal Fire.

Cal Fire also said last month that 11 firefighters had been injured fighting the blaze.

The fire burned through more than 60,000 acres in the Northern California county, and is now 95% contained. The cause of the fire is under investigation, though a lawsuit alleges that power lines operated by PacifiCorp, an Oregon-based utility company, sparked the fire.

“The Siskiyou County Sheriff ’s Office extends its deepest condolences to the family and friends of the victims,” Sheriff Jeremiah LaRue said in a news release.